7.27 Heat and Typhoon The late July and early August is usually the hottest time in China with temperatures rising up to above 35℃ in many cities. People tend to stay in air-conditioned rooms for most of time or jump into the swimming pools. If they have to venture outside, you’ll see them dressing lightly and holding umbrellas all the time. Yes, we use umbrellas, sometimes equipped with anti-ultraviolet layers, to block out the blazing sun, plus the suntan lotion. Still, this is a time when hospitals are flooded with people who are down with heatstroke, the elderly and children in particular. To me, I sympathize more with the ones who have to work outdoors such as construction workers and sanitation workers. This period of time would be really tough for them, and I think their hard labor deserves a higher income and better welfare that is often missed. Luckily for residents living in the costal regions, typhoons would occasionally pay a visit to mitigate the heat wave. Typhoon is said to be the equivalent of a hurricane in the US, yet less destructive in my opinion. Sometime they could cause substantial damages like uprooting the trees or blowing down houses and infrastructures, or causing severe floods, or even inviting blackouts and water shortage for many days in a row, but generally speaking, it is not really that terrible to encounter a less turbulent Typhoon. People even wish for it to happen because it can immediate sweep the heat over with torrential rains pouring down. After weeks of intense heat, a typhoon is on it way and warmly welcomed, and we are expecting it to do the miracle.